foreign at night it feels like so strange to be here again at night time but um alhamdulillah before I get started I just wanted to once again show gratitude and true truly honored to be in the presence of my beloved brother and everyone here from the staff at this incredible center alhamdulillah it's growing it is flourishing it's Vision driven and it's beautiful to see it coming together so I pray that inshallah I'll be able to see it over and over and over again and that we be United multiple times within that which is pleasing to Allah I also want to thank the volunteers masha'allah and the security if they got a little unnerved at some point trying to get you in um you know trying to get you through this door and if you know they seem like they were panicking at some point or things became difficult please forgive them and in fact thank them because it's not easy to manage an event with a space that is limited alhamdulillah I mean everyone one that comes here with the right intention inshallah will be rewarded fully and you'll get more than what you could get from a lecture within the nahitana so please forgive them and thank them and I'm certainly grateful to to all of them Allah reward you all and on your way out say thank you to them as well to all of you alhamdulillah for coming again I know I was here not too long ago how many of you are here at that event by the way alhamdulillah so it's good to see so many of your faces once again foreign so tonight is going to be one of those topics that if I don't make you a little bit uncomfortable then I failed in my mission tonight and if I don't heed my own words and make myself a bit uncomfortable I've also failed so I want you to understand that the topic is very specific for a reason and I'm not intentionally offending you but I do hope inshallah that every single one of you finds something in this lecture tonight where you say to yourself maybe that's where I fall and that's where I need to work maybe that's where I fall and that's where I need to work why because we all have deficiencies and if any of you actually read the title of the talk before you signed up how to become a more wholesome Muslim there is meaning to that what I could do is I could talk to you about the things that I'm pretty certain as an audience as maybe a Masjid going audience or an audience that typically goes to massage it and engages in Islamic activities and is familiar with Islamic education online I could share with you the things that I know that most of you probably already do I'd encourage you to do more of it and talk about the rewards of those things but actually what I want you to do and what I find is the most useful exercise at the beginning of any talk is for you to actually do your own introspection and ask yourself if I was giving advice to myself if myself just walk through the door and I was another person and I had to give myself advice as a friend or give a lecture or talk to someone on a heart-to-heart basis and say something that might be an uncomfortable truth what would I say to myself if I knew myself as a friend for let's say five months and I've spent every day with you for five months then I probably have a pretty good idea of who you are now you've spent every single moment with yourself since you've been here but I'm talking about if your self was a friend five months six months I've seen you every day and now I need to have a really uncomfortable conversation with you what would I have to say to you and what would be the nasiha the advice that you need to hear subhanallah you'll find us mentioned that that contemplation introspection is like holding up a mirror to yourself and it is the clearest most clarifying mirror that you can possibly have you see if you have a righteous friend that is willing to share with you certain things that you might need to hear at times because they love you more than they love your friendship those are special people by the way if you come across one of them they love you more than they love your friendship meaning what I'd rather tell you something that I think you need to hear even if that means that I might alienate you for me because I think it'll make you a better person very few friends are like that and when you find a friend like that make sure that when they give you and I'll see how when they give you that sincere advice you thank them in a way that they will want to give it to you again and that they'll be willing to receive it as well if you have people like that those are the people that Allah is talking about when he says they enjoin one another in truth and they keep each other patient those types of friends right that will actually take the time and care to love you more than they even love your friendship now yourself is even more clarifying especially if you're paying close attention to yourself and you should care about your Hereafter more than anyone else cares for your Hereafter you see there's a handoff point especially for many Muslims that grow up in Muslim households where your parents care more for your Islam than you care for your own Islam and then there comes a point where you've got to take control of your own narrative and your own religion and your own story and this has to become now your Pursuit it's no longer them waking you up for prayer it's yourself waking up for prayer before they can even come knock on the door it's no longer them reminding you it's you reminding yourself because you realize at some point you love your success in the akhirah more than they love your success I'll give you an example from a worldly perspective you know there's a point in life where a person who's pursuing a certain level of education has to have buy-in in their own education your parents can put you in the best schools think about the worldly perspective they can get you the best teachers the best education they can invest in your after-school education they can help get you enrolled in the best universities but at some points it's going to be you sitting in that chair in the classroom and if you don't choose to learn and succeed you're just going to fail even in the best university there's a spiritual analogy there too that even if someone gets you the best environment the best teachers puts you in the best community puts you in the best university the University of rasulullah which is the University you want to be enrolled in his Sunnah at some point you've gotta be wanting to succeed and Learn and Grow or else you fall off now that's just one example of this so as I said if I don't make you a little bit uncomfortable in this lecture then I failed as a lecturer and if I don't heed my own advice and make myself a little bit uncomfortable then I failed as a Muslim to be honest with you so let's talk about the subject for a bit inshallah the idea of being a more wholesome Muslim now the first way I want you to look at this is I want you to take a step back and I want you to think about some amazing people we have in history and some of the qualities that made them amazing and whether those qualities match the typical circumstances of those people so I'll start with the prophet of Allah who are the wealthy prophets you think of who are the wealthy prophets like the prophets that were Rich the prophets that were wealthy the prophets that were powerful who was his father is so one of the beautiful things that you see with dawood and Suleiman is that Suleiman is a prophet of Allah therefore he's naturally nourished in righteousness and made worthy of being a recipient of Revelation but it's beautiful when you see succession in the Quran between parents and children the most common ones we talk about are Ibrahim and his children and then to Jacob and then to Yusuf to Joseph and there is such a consistency there and you can see the same elements of righteousness and Beauty transitioning from one parent to the next which is beautiful right you don't just see that they all are Muslims but if um and you had known their father Ibrahim you would see it you'd catch it there Islam you remind me of your father it's a good parent you know if he met Fatima Allah if you met Fatima you would see everything of the Prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam if you knew the prophet saws and it used to stun people to the point that they'd say subhanallah even her walk was exactly like the prophet sallallahu I've never seen a person who resembled the prophet saws in in mannerism in appearance in every single detail like Fatima to the prophet sallallahu so there's like if I met is to one day know them all in person in Paradise Allah I mean I see your father in you I can see your mother and you I see the transition point I see the characteristics and you had known there's a clear transition here there's a beauty in the similarities of their character as I said I want you to kind of take a step back and think about a wholesome person from a worldly perspective is marked by his wealth and his power right he's a powerful Prophet he's a wealthy Prophet he's successful in the Dunya wisance as he is in the denisence and all of the prophets are successful right but if you saw his worldly achievements there's success there right and usually with that type of success which his son inherited and then had grown in a way that Allah decreed in response to his Dua customized and even bigger Kingdom usually people that have that type of success have certain flaws that become more pronounced even sometimes to their own ignorance you know if you were to take yourself and and some people have witnessed a great variety of change in their lives in terms of their economic circumstances I know many of you are young and you haven't gone through that right but at one point very hard-working poor at some point still hard working but maybe they succeed in a worldly sense maybe some people came from a country where certain expectations of service and respect were not necessarily there but now they're in a different type of society and so that expectation and that service is there it's like you know I I'll never forget and may Allah forgive this brother and I gave a Ultima today about not mocking people but it hurt me to hear it honestly I remember in Hajj very specific moment in my life and the American may Allah protect us all and accept our Hajj but we go there with expectations like hey I paid for the package right and this guy you know a bus is late and he goes to the guy who's running the buses and he asks them when the buses are and the guy kind of brushes him off and in the thickest accent that was not an American accent says I'm an American masha'allah get back in life right but there was something that they came from like in a change of circumstance meant a change of how I expect the world to approach me now right like when you get wealthier may Allah grant you all goodness in this life and in the next whether that's manifested in wealth or not but when you live a life of more ease you expect better service at the restaurant you're more easily irritated because your circumstances dictate this idea that I've paid my way up to expecting a certain level of treatment at this point in my life maybe I wouldn't have had that same level of expectation earlier on and I don't recognize that as arrogance in myself but in reality what changed what changed right Islam powerful wealthy successful yet look at what he's praised for in the Quran and the Sunnah and take a step back he's praised for his worship he's praised for his ibadah which is very significant here because when his descendants were being extracted from his loins he saw this light in the creation and he said who is that child of mine and he was told it's so beautiful that Adam Islam gave him several decades of his life so this man needs to live more on Earth what did the prophet saws praise about Islam can anyone tell me anything you remember about Islam and his worship any Hadith you may have heard you can raise your hands I don't want to hear the mumbling song anything you've heard about that yeah a wise person is hikmah is praised if you can't answer you're sick he was generous the Sheikh just gave you an answer what did he say he was a king all right why is no one repeating the answer of the Sheikh he was right what's your name Allah what is it yeah bless you and increase you uh the prophet saws mentioned the best prayer at night is the prayer of David you know that last third of the night he traced that to dawood Islam used to wake up in the last third of the night was not satisfied with simply being wealthy and being a prophet and someone who gives Allah he also was pushing himself to pray at night what else there's another very distinct ibad the act of worship that he was famous for yeah what is what is this fasting someone raised their hand what was this fasting this can mean many things day on and day off may Allah preserve you day on and day off the prophet saws said the best fasting is the fasting he would fast today and break his fast the next day how amazing is that his habit was to fast every other day now you think of a man wealthy in his kingdom he's a prophet of Allah he has a long resume he has a lot to be praised for he's sitting here establishing Islam in the world right but he still found the prerogative to rise from his comfortable bed in the last third of the night and to forsake his comfortable wealth every other day and fast with Allah a beautiful person so he has these qualities that aren't typically associated with someone that might just think well hey I just write my my check I just give charity and that's it all right but on top of that he also has all of the qualities that actually match his circumstances so there are certain qualities good qualities that might come more natural to you because of your upbringing because of your privileges because of your circumstances and you're expected to shine with those qualities and then not have the blind spots and the flaws that might come with that place so when someone gets wealthy what is one area of Charity that usually a wealthy Muslim will resort to if someone gets wealthy Muslim gets wealthy and they start to give charity there are different charitable projects you know I just realize that that's a bad question because mashallah you're going to start naming a bunch of projects but what about sponsoring orphans sponsoring orphans usually is a project that hits deep with people's hearts especially the Muslims the prophet saws that I and the one I and the one who sponsors an orphan are like these two fingers may Allah grant us this closeness to the prophet saws on the day of judgment amen but there are different ways right there's someone that just writes a check and there's someone that does even more that shows a great deal of empathy and love and it's harder when you're more removed from the circumstances of the one you're giving charity to to empathize with that person right it's harder so even while it's actually interesting subhanallah the psychology of Charity that even while you might be giving more you might be connecting much less to the recipients you're giving more out of a sense of responsibility you need to write bigger checks because you have more money now you need to sponsor more people but their experience is becoming more and more distant from you and of course in our day and age alhamdulillah it's a great blessing that I could pull out my phone and donate right now but there's something that needs to also be accounted for which is that there's no longer that idea of going to someone and giving them and being in their presence and actually seeing it and experiencing it and getting the softness of the heart that comes with it now could have simply said you know to his Minister count how much wealth I have and then a lot this percentage like he's doing taxes but she don't do sadaka like you do taxes when you're a person of Hassan when you're a person of Excellence that is known for always surrounding himself with the orphans what is this based upon if you read uh not to get too technical but it's it's a beautiful saying uh if you read one of the collections of Imam Allah where he breaks down chapters of hadith's on Noble characteristics Noble traits it's actually one of the most beautiful reads from a collection of a Hadith that you will come acrossman he has a chapter which is named after this beautiful statement of the narration be to the orphan like a loving father be to the orphan like a loving father meaning surrounded himself with atom with orphans he wasn't just writing a check he was taking deep interest in their lives in as the type of household comes from who will never be blinded by wealth you see now it kind of makes sense how did Suleiman Islam have all of this wealth and it didn't faze him at all and he's still Azad a complete ascetic who's not moved by any of the Kingdom in front of him anything that Allah put at his disposal because he had a father of course first and foremost Allah nourished him in Revelation but he had a living example that certainly put an effect on him where his father was so disconnected from the wealth of this world though it was at his disposal so he carried on the same attitude of his father and Allah grew his kingdom but he treated his kingdom the way his father treated the kingdom meaning the wholesomeness of Salam translated to the wholesomeness of Suleiman so I just want to talk about good qualities for a moment this is not the part that makes you uncomfortable all right this is the part that makes you think a little bit inshallah about how wholesomeness is looked at through our Deen through our teschia but not the part that makes you uncomfortable another example a very wealthy man exceedingly wealthy man I'm using wealth because it's an obvious example to start with we're talking about good qualities what was the quality other than sadaka other than charity that is distinguished by he was shy a is a much broader term than shyness but so modest you know Haya includes modesty humility shyness it includes many different things but like if you knew him the love that people had for him the wealth that he possessed the position that he possessed in society yet he would be the quietest person in the room he'd be the shyest person he didn't walk around with swag he walked around with a lot of humility to where if you didn't know him you wouldn't assume anything about his circumstances you might even assume the opposite because he was quiet he was shy he was modest he was humble with people you'd never know so he had a quality that was expected of someone of his circumstance and he signed with it which was super generous with his wealth the prophet saws asks for something he comes forth and he gives it which is what you would want from someone that has that wealth but then he has a quality that is rare to find with someone that has those circumstances wholesomeness right you see what I'm getting at here is known for his wisdom his wise speech deeply poetic his Parables were legendary every time he spoke Ali his salaam it became a statement that was etched in the minds of everyone in the hearts and minds of everyone that was around him so poetic so eloquent but lukman al-hakim was distinguished actually by his silence and he went to a gathering luqman was the quietest person there has a story and this is not a Hadith so I want to point this out there it's just a parable about Hakeem he said that it was said that one time spoke in the Gathering and lukman and Hakeem was in that Gathering and he you know he's talking about this idea and he said that look man did not speak the whole time so Islam asked him uh why he didn't say anything and he said is there any use on paraphrasing is there any use in speech unless it is about Allah and is there any good in silence unless you're thinking about Allah so your silence should be meaningful your speaking should be meaningful I was in a meaningful silence and I didn't find that meaningful speech overcame the beauty of meaningful silence in these moments right again this is not a Hadith it's a story that's narrated mentions but certainly a great wisdom and the prophet saws Praises his wisdom and even more than that Allah Praises his wisdom in the Quran usually people that are poetic are going to talk more usually people that are eloquent and articulate are going to talk more and they won't know when to be quiet because they'll start becoming invested in their own speech and the prophet saws mentioned that one of the signs of the day of judgment is everyone is fascinated by their own opinion everyone has an opinion and everyone is fascinated by their own opinion as if it's an informed opinion no getting a bunch of retweets and a bunch of likes and shares and a bunch of forwards and people that think at the same level as you confirming everything that you say does not mean that you have an informed opinion just because it resonates with a lot of people doesn't mean it's informed so one of the signs of the day of judgment is everyone becomes fascinated by their opinion I shared an opinion it's the greatest thing you know in the world sounded great even if it was entirely uninformed and illiterate but it sounded great so people get used to hearing their own voices and if you're articulate like silence is not usually a trait that you're going to find so the quality that was expected of him wisdom with his eloquence he called to good things right Allah immortalized the conversation of a man with his child on their walk I mean you have to be an incredible person of character and wisdom that Allah will turn this advice that you're giving to your son on a walk into Asura of the Quran right so a man who spoke with wisdom and who spoke with benefits so he didn't use his eloquence in a way that was misplaced he used it for good things and he also did not let that good quality own him and betray him by taking him away from another good quality which was learning to practice silence when it was necessary Khadija a woman who was of perfect faith foreign was exceedingly beautiful exceedingly wealthy exceedingly prestigious she has everything that a person could want in that Society look at her qualities of humility of modesty the support the Loyalty The the way that she valued character in people right she was in the rooms with people who could care less about character they were all about Folly they were all about materialism they were all about image they were all about all of the superficiality yet what does she look for in people anana truthfulness trustworthiness and Allah gifted her with asada as a husband so supportive so modest so incredible so she has the qualities that would be expected of her righteous woman of her Prestige what does she do she frees slaves with her wealth she sponsors the weddings of young women that couldn't afford to get married in her Society she pays mahab see I mean her home was a soup kitchen in jahiliya she literally had a green like tent some a canopy in front of her house that people knew to come to her house and that she was always going to spend on people even before she married the prophet salallahu so she had the qualities that were expected of a person of that stature but then she had these qualities that are seemingly contradicting I think you all get the point here so I'm not going to go into more examples because I could go all at night and I realized that time is already moving but most of the companions of the Prophet saws exemplify this in such a beautiful way foreign strong powerful but subhanallah if a young child told fear Allah his ego never betrayed him never betrayed him shaytan fled from Umar because kicked his ego in the mouth figuratively like his ego had no place with him therefore shaytan had no opening with him so you could tell Omar to fear Allah would fear Allah right away and say why what do I do right so his strength was expected of a man of his stature and prominence but at the same time he had these qualities that were not expected of a person who had that type of an you know an imposing presence in society now what does this have to do with being a more wholesome Muslim so we launched this study at yakin and I'm going to actually invite all of you at some point inshallah to go on the website to joachineinstitute.org and take the religiosity quiz at the bottom you scroll right down you'll see religiosity quiz a portrait of your religiosity a portrait of your religiosity it's called basic belief attitude spirituality institution contribution basic belief attitude spirituality institution contribution what does it speak to where did this come from it was actually a quiz and a methodology a data methodology that was worked on by Dr usmano marji who's here in SoCal by the way and some of the scholars that are here alhamdulillah I just got the 10 minute Mark brother Nabil I'm sorry I'm gonna go all right but they worked on this data collection or a methodology to where what does it mean to measure the wholesomeness of a Muslim so I'll give you like practical examples you might someone you find someone that has great attitudes about their religion you ask them about Islam and they light up and they say I love my religion they don't look the part they don't pray the part they're not in the Masjid but you meet this person in public and you ask them about Islam and they light up they have a great attitude about their religion they'll defend it against any islamophobe right attitude is great maybe they're lacking in other areas you have some people that have great spiritual practice but their spiritual practice is not translating to any level of contribution back to the society back to community that's a deficiency the spirituality part is great but how do you launch them into the contribution there are some people that have strong belief in Islam like their Creed is solid philosophy they could argue with people they could do doubts of people in the park they could take on people and all types of things but they're not really practicing Muslims it's really relegated to the intellectual space because we have a tendency to imbalance and our lives are an opportunity to try to balance ourselves out to be the most wholesome Servants of Allah before we meet him you might have someone that is b-a-s-c heavy but they don't have a connection to the Masjid and I understand institutions sometimes massage it are not welcoming sometimes you're not finding yourself in a Masjid but you know what the prophet saws said the Masjid is the home of every believer every Muslim their home is the Masjid their spiritual home is the Masjid you got to have a place of institution in your life as well and institutionalizing your good efforts right so how do I fill these categories so that I don't meet Allah with a great deficiency in any one of them what do I need to hear what do I need to start practicing while I build each one of these now every one of us is going to be imbalanced but we don't want to be imbalanced in a way that we have fundamental flaws that go unaddressed in our personalities and the worst type of situation that you can be in or of the worst situations is when you're actually being betrayed by a good quality that you possess meaning what every time you think about improvements you merely think about a good quality that you already have and simply embellishing that good quality further I'll give you an example until Allah belongs the greatest example so this is different but just maybe a human one that you can relate to all right parent tells a child um I need you to do this chore by eight o'clock child comes back doesn't do the chore says mom I bought you flowers all right great can you go do the dishes now I cut the grass you know okay but can you go do the dishes I vacuumed the living room what's happening here there's a disconnect between what you're supposed to be doing and something that you might be doing that might be good it is good it's nice that you vacuumed it's nice that you cleaned up it's nice that you cut the grass it's nice that you did all these things but you were told to do something very specific and you're not doing it now that can become a fundamental and fatal flaw right now with our relationship with Allah this is a form of deception delusion talks about a very specific type of right and that is the rule of the righteous so he says the righteous in quotation mark so he says for example the people that can really get caught up into this he says Scholars worshipers people of tesaw wolf so spirituality and wealthy people now what is he talking about here he says the scholar might feel a sense of immunity because they teach the religion to the people and so religion becomes relegated to Theory preaching telling other people what to do and the person has no time to practice anything that they are doing even worse intentionally doing other than what they say or just not practicing it letting the hearts rust not doing anything while telling people how they should be better and they justify that to themselves by saying I'm busy I gotta teach the people and so they live in books and they teach in books and they sleep in books and they never experience Allah they might know about Allah but they don't know Allah so they're teaching people about Allah but they're not getting into it and that's a form of delusion right and even worse than that I can tell you this that in the in the culture and let's not just take Scholars and pick on Scholars people of dawah people who are of the quote unquote religious class in those circles some of the worst spiritual diseases go completely unchucked because when you see a bunch of religious people backbiting well they're religious and so if this person is doing it then it must not really qualify as liba then and if this person's doing it this person's doing it can't really be that corrupt it's so much more blatant and obvious when it's a bunch of people that are clearly far away from Allah talking about something that distances them from Allah so even the culture that gets created around scholarship and Dao and things of that sort can be a poisonous one a fundamental flaw goes unaddressed a person might worship Allah a lot so you could be practicing a major sin insisting on a sin and having no intention to address it at any point in your life but you pray extra you fast extra alhamdulillah that's amazing if you're praying sunnahs as well that's amazing if you're fasting more than Ramadan but Allah is not going to ask you on the day of judgment why didn't you fast Mondays and Thursdays or why didn't you pray at nights and you might be developing an arrogance in the process of that self-righteousness looking down upon the quote unquote sinners and so delusion even though what you're doing is good you need to address the Fatal flaw people of spirituality and he's speaking about a very particular class of people that think that they have access some secret relationship with the Divine to where they no longer need to do the actions that are required of the ordinary so they've reached an extraordinary status where they no longer even need to do the ordinary practices and people of wealth and this is by the way very much so not to pick on rich people I'm sorry you know we we love you when you give to the massager than you give to the institutions and you're but see on a serious note if you think about where Christianity is going capitalistic American Christianity is going right write your check to God and you're good as long as you're putting that check in the bucket on Sunday you're good write your check right and we can have a manifestation of that as Muslims talking about it centuries ago where a person feels like I give charity and what happens when you give charity everyone says that brother is so generous that sister's so generous and they praise and praise and praise and praise and that person goes home and commits the same sins every day and night lives in Haram because no one even tells them that what they're doing is Haram anymore because they want them to keep writing those checks it's not a snow you don't get to write a check to God and just turn away you've got you've got the same Haram and Halal as everybody else but it can feel that way and Society will even prompt you in that way and the delusion hence will grow so how do we draw the line how do we start to come out of this well for one says something very powerful he says as for hasanats Good Deeds he said both the righteous person and a sinner is capable of doing good deeds but no one is able to abandon sin unless they're truthful with Allah not doing something that Allah tells you not to do is harder than doing something that Allah tells you to do or tells you is good for you to do think about this for a moment it's powerful why because Good Deeds resonate with your fitra the inherent goodness inside of you so you feel good when you do good deeds and so you could sit in that place and you could get very comfortable in that and keep on embellishing your good deeds giving charity feels great volunteering feels great praying feels great and in the 21st century there are books being written about this religion is being relegated to your latest method of self-care it's your yoga practice on the side it's how you feel better about yourself when you go to sleep at night I said I'm going to make you guys a little uncomfortable I don't want to be rude here right but think about it for a moment right so you give enough charity not to the extent that someone needs it but to the extent that you need to feel good so that's the amount that I'm going to allot for my life I'm going to volunteer and especially in these disaster Zones look and my heart is not immune upon Allah like we go to relief camps distribution sites and if someone's carrying around the camera the whole time there's something that can happen there so you got your great selfie with the dying Refugee and then you just walked away something's wrong here it's the 21st century though it is a culture that we have by the way that doesn't mean that it's not good for people to be filmed in charity to invite other people to do good this is just like every other form of Charity but I'm saying if you only do it to the point that it makes you feel good not to the point that the other person needs this is what religion is becoming in the 21st century so you sit in a good place a place where Good Deeds make you happy but you're not abandoning what Allah tells you to abandon and that's where true sacrifice comes Allah says even atheists are willing to do many good things because those good things make them feel good so you'll find atheists that will do good deeds and good actions that give them that sense of joy but when it comes to sacrifice now I'm good I'm good so what ends up happening is an imbalance with a fatal flaw in your life where you're able to come to peace with the existence of Disobedience to Allah and you justify it by saying to yourself but I do all these other good things I think I'm okay on the day of judgment and I heard that a person who does this good Deen this good deed is great and it's going to come on the day of judgment with this way and this way and this way yeah but if you don't address that other stuff you've got a hole in your bucket and the water is coming through so you can keep on pouring water in the bucket or you plug that hole so that the water stops falling through and there is also a sense he says and I'm paraphrasing because of time here he said a person might do a good deed and they rely on that good deed and they forget their sins until they meet Allah depending upon that good deed and then they find instead that their sins surround them from every direction whereas another person might commit a sin and never stop fearing the consequences of that sin until they repent so sincerely that they come on the day of judgment and they find that that sin is not only not only not a source of distress and consequence for them but is actually a good deed that's been written down for them because Sincere repentance turns even sins into Good Deeds so they they didn't depend upon a good deed that they were doing and then say I'm okay and it's okay I'm gonna live with these sins that I know are present in my life with no intention to ever relinquish them and then they met the consequences on the day of Judgment of course the worst manifestation of that is when the prophet saws do you know who the bankrupt person is the bankrupt person is the person who comes with all of their prayer all of their all of their fasting but at the same time curse this person out thou mouth with this person backbited this person abuse this person and all they find on the day of judgment is they basically have their Salah their Salam their taken away from them and given them given to someone else now that's living a life of hypocrisy where you think you can be good with Allah and bad with the people and that's not possible that's not possible so this is one way that you start to identify like never justifying fatal flaws so when someone says brother sister the religion is not all that and they'll point to certain rituals in Islam and you're right the religion is not all this in terms of a ritual right but if you're saying that to diminish the ritual to diminish to diminish an act of worship you're only fooling yourself it sounds great as a tweet it's not going to go very well for you on the day of judgment and then if someone else comes and diminishes character and says who cares this person does this but at least that person prays at least this person does this at least I do this at least I do that and diminishes major major character flaws then on the day of judgment that person might end up as a bankrupt person so how do we start to deal with this inshallah a few things that I'll mention number one the farads the men what is mandatory is the same for everyone Halal and Haram are the same for everyone listen we're coming to a time where people are just not going to tell you what you need to hear anymore because people are not going to want to offend your sensitivities and your sensibilities we're living in a time where algorithms are catered towards what you like to hear and what you like to see not what's going to challenge you to be better everything around you is becoming more intelligent at satisfying you and your delusion and you have to do that much more work to overcome that and to make yourself hear what's going to actually better you inshallah and Ramadan Ramadan when it comes is a great time to do that by the way it's a great time to do that like there are things that I need to hear and even if someone's not telling it to me I'm not just going to keep on looking for confirmation bias and the algorithm is inherently confirmation biased so you start with what what's fart what's mandatory on every Muslim what's Halal and Haram for every Muslim and if I'm falling short somewhere there what's my game plan to get to it even if I'm not yet there but I'm gonna acknowledge it and I'm gonna be uncomfortable with that discrepancy and I'm going to try to make progress towards settling that discrepancy in my life whether it's on the side of ritual or on the side of character that's number one number two there are recommendations for healthy spirituality in the realm of what is in the realm of what is voluntary that will benefit you in every one of these buckets so for example the night prayer even if it's 15 30 minutes even if it's two dakas kriyam has a way of infusing goodness into every single one of the dimensions of your spirituality and your character because it makes you more focused on the side of Allah it makes you more introspective it makes you more reflective it makes you more disciplined it is so wholesome azer ibadah as an act of worship that it will Infuse goodness it's completely voluntary but it will Infuse goodness into all of those reading the Quran is one of those as well right you can't say that well for this deficiency I need to read last Quran no reading the Quran is always going to have some way of pushing you making Dua is always going to have some way of pushing you so finding those acts of worship in the voluntary sense that push you towards a softer heart and a greater Zeal in trying to please Allah the next thing that we find is that growing in one area of ibada or character will inherently affect the other areas of your life [Music] well a very powerful statement from Allah as well on this idea and before I say the statement let me give you an example here if you're going to the gym and you're working on a primary muscle there are all sorts of benefits to surrounding muscles right that maybe will not be identified on the chart on the side of a machine but your overall health is increasing and the muscles around it are getting stronger as well and sometimes they're really small muscles and small things that people don't even see right but there's an overall benefit that doesn't mean that you don't have to focus some attention and diversify and hit those different muscle groups but what that means is that when you're improving one element of your health you're improving all of it and so when you're becoming a more focused Muslim on your character on your faith and you're actually targeting certain goals for yourself every single year that this year this is how I want to look like a better Muslim this year that's going to at the bare minimum influence your ethic and how you approach your relationship with Allah and it will influence other elements of your character as well speaks about this particularly when it comes to good character when it comes to good mannerisms you know I just talked about how some people might excel in ritual but not necessarily character some people might excel in character but not necessarily ritual and that discrepancy is sometimes very clear he said he said the religion in its entirety is good character so whoever surpasses you in good character has surpassed you in religion this separation of practice from practical on an everyday life is not an Islamic separation this is a religion that is meant to transform every single facet of your life if you have a prophet sallallahu alaihi wasallam who taught you that there is a connection between your Thicket of Allah with your tongue in your heart and the foot that you're going to step into the restroom with then certainly the Sunnah transforms and connects and aligns everything from how you act in the Masjid to how you act in your most private room in your home and how you act with the closest person in the world to you with the person who's furthest away from you from how you act with someone who has a financial commitment to you to someone who has absolutely no worldly connection to you it's going to transform that and align it because the prophet saws taught us something that's coherent that transforms character and Deen all together the last couple of things I'll say here is that if you address those things that's where you'll find that Allah will unlock a particular Brilliance for you so this isn't contradicting to say that the sahaba had specialties even though they were all balanced they did have Specialties things that they excelled in may Allah be pleased with them may Allah be pleased with them they didn't excel in the same ways they were balanced they had the fundamentals and then they had a particular genius just like a good basketball team a good football team and the companions are far greater than any team but you got to have the center the power forward the small forward and you get where I'm going with this the shooting guard and the point guard and I'm not going to start assigning which companion is who but you gotta have people playing their different roles and that's how you become a more wholesome team that's how you become a more wholesome community and the beauty of the companions is that the prophet saws was able to unlock that genius in every single person so you don't necessarily look at another person and say that's how I'm going to be a good Muslim one time there was a man it's a very famous letter I'll read the first few lines of it a man who sent him a letter that was admonishing because he perceived a deficiency in him in one particular route you know this was sort of the thing like the scholars and the Warriors right there are very few people that were playing both roles that were Scholars and warriors in the battlefield as well so sometimes the Warriors would say that guy is just sitting in the library the whole time sometime a scholar would say that person who's active all the time doesn't even have real and that could be a trick of shaitaan to start pitting people against each other right responded with a very famous statement he said he said Allah has apportioned his Good Deeds the same way he's apportioned his sustenance meaning what just like some people have different worldly circumstances that are more favorable in one regard some people have a particular portion from Allah that comes natural to them in terms of Good Deeds their personalities their environments have cultivated them their circumstances towards easy low-hanging fruits when it comes to Good Deeds he says he's not a person for example might find that Allah has unlocked the door of prayer for that person but not necessarily with fasting meaning what not that they don't fast Ramadan no but that they find it easier and more pleasing to pray extra but they don't necessarily fast extra that's not their ibada that's not their worship and he says and another person who Allah made charity easy for that person but not necessarily fasting so he goes through these examples and he says look I'm satisfied I know that Allah has opened a particular door for me and I hope that Allah will accept it I hope that Allah will accept Abdullah one time someone went to him and said you know we don't find you fasting extra days it's very peculiar you don't necessarily fast too many extra days there's this idea that everyone who's getting religious it starts a fast Mondays Thursdays uh the middle three days every other day for example they didn't find him necessarily shining in that regard and he said look I teach Quran all day I read and I teach Quran and he said that is more beloved to me than he said for me reading the Quran teaching the Quran is more beloved to me than fasting I'm happy with what Allah has a portion for me here like I'm okay with this excelling in this regard so you're not necessarily going to excel in everything but excel in the things that come easiest to you without being betrayed by those qualities if I could summarize this past hour excel in the qualities that come easy to you the Deeds that come easy to you without betraying those qualities with flaw cause that you ignore all right now with that being said the prophet saws also said that there are two types that Envy is bad except in two cases Envy is bad there is no Envy except in two cases a person who Allah gave knowledge to and they recite it and one narration spread it meaning that they read it at night so they pray at night with that knowledge they recite the Quran or they teach it they preach it right so a person who Allah has given and they spread it or a person who Allah has given wealth and they spend it Prophet saws said there is no Envy except in these two cases but isn't that a contradiction absolutely not and I'll tell you why someone might say I really really want to be that rich person all right and I will give sadaqah if I get rich but what they Envy about the person is not the sadaqah part they're using the sadaka parts to embrace that position and not find a contradiction with their religion so if I get there I'll give a lot of Charity too they might like the praise that comes with it they might like the lifestyle that comes with it and says well the sadaqah certainly washes that away and so this is great I want to be that person right so you get a community where every single person wants to become a doctor we need doctors by the way I'm not telling anyone to drop med school but every single like they think wealth wealth wealth wealth and there's more to it than that right but the prophet saws not talking about that the prophet saws is talking about a person who sees someone who's benefiting with their sadaka and they're envying the benefit parts I wish I could give that much benefits and so what does that translate into for them they try to make up for their inability to give charity with their wealth with their volunteering with their work with all of the other things they can do with themselves so that they can match the benefit in the sight of Allah and he said I'm a person with Allah gives knowledge to and they spread it now by the way in another narration the prophet saws said that whoever seeks knowledge so that they can argue with Scholars shame the ignorant or the yes turn people's attention to them Allah will enter them into Hellfire may Allah protect us all so you're not envying the man I want to be a speaker that looks that looks great I want to be on YouTube one day I want to have tick tocks going viral I want to have this and this and that this you know I want to be on the men bottle one day no no no no none of that they're envying the benefits and saying I want to benefit people like that I want to be a guide for people towards towards good so that's either going to unlock in me that I need to learn more or I need to find ways to maybe open the pathways of random for other people so maybe I'll facilitate that knowledge towards other people because I want to get some of the reward of that benefit so the competition does not become about the specifics it becomes about the reward and output that we all have the Zeal to want to compete and that makes us all better that makes us all better you know I don't want to use too many basketball examples I feel like I've used too many of those already some of you like we don't know what you're talking about here right but you know a great player doesn't just study everyone at their position right they become a student of every great player and try to adopt what they can try to learn from what they can and bring it into their lives and that keeps them getting greater greater and greater and greater and greater what does that mean for a Muslim let them compete in that good rushing racing Allah you all have heard of um so in two years this man turned the ummah around 38 to 40 by the way he was only 38 years old when he became the Khalifa incredible human being the great grandson of um incredible human being one of the most accomplished people in Islamic history is he died when he was 40. he was the governor of Medina when he was 25 years old till 32 and then he became the Khalif at 38 what the man did is incredible I mean one of the most accomplished people in Islamic history to the point that there is consensus according to many of the Scottish he's the first of Islam the first reviver of Islam after Abu Bakr is in his generation he is the reviver so if you're Ahmed of an abdin Aziz and people are telling you this stuff and you're seeing the accomplishments you're probably thinking to yourself like I'm good I'm good and he finds him remembering Allah at the riverbank and crying and weeping and getting close to Allah and he looks at mujahad and he goes woe to you how am I supposed to meet Allah on the same day that you meet Allah man I gotta do better how am I supposed to meet Allah on the same day that you're going to meet him he saw something mujahid was doing that he wasn't doing that inspired him it didn't shut him off make him despondent because that's how we are as an ulma and his great grandfather um had one person in the ummah after the prophet saws that was greater than him what does he say about himself I always wanted to compete with Abu Bakr and he always beat me out so I thought one day I'm gonna surpass him and this is probably a good segue into a fundraiser all right because you've all heard this maybe in a fundraiser one day I was going to surpass I know the prophet saws was asking for wealth I brought a bunch of my money Prophet saws said what have you left for your family said half of it for Allah and his messenger half of it for the family great job and he gives all of his wealth for the sake of Allah and he's like I don't know what to do I can't beat out Abu Bakr but he kept trying and some of the greatness of the khilaf of um is that he always ahead of him and was always thinking to himself you've exhausted everyone that comes after you I got to do better I've got to be like you I've got to try to be more like you culture we want to have and so being a more wholesome Muslim means being a more wholesome community and it means looking at the best examples around you to inspire you not the worst examples around you to make you complacent or even worse condescending and judgmental looking at the best examples people that have something that you know that you don't have and I want the benefit and the rewards I'm going to push myself to do even better may Allah make us people that Inspire and are inspired and may Allah forgive us for our shortcomings may Allah rid us of any of the destructive flaws that could do away with our Good Deeds may Allah guide us towards that which is pleasing to him that which makes us more pleasing servants to him may Allah Rectify us and rectify through us may Allah correct our hearts correct our Deeds may Allah correct our Creed correct our ideas correct our practices and allow us to die in a way in which we have reached that which is most pleasing to him